In the art of making and handling bricks prior to the step where they are loaded onto a kiln car for transport to a kiln where they are fired and dried, it is often desirable to stack the bricks in two or more layers to make the handling of the bricks more efficient. At times, it is also desirable that the "faces", which are the smooth sides of the bricks, in upper and lower layers be contacting each other to avoid damage to the faces.
With methods and apparatus of the prior art, stacking of bricks has been accomplished by opposed gripping members which grip the bricks in one group, raise the gripped bricks and then deposit them on another group of bricks. In situations where facing as well as stacking is desired, brick gripper members after gripping the bricks are rotated or pivoted 180.degree. to orient the faces of the bricks prior to stacking them on the other group of bricks. In some devices of the prior art, the gripper members include inflatable tubes or bags or similar structure for gripping the bricks while, in other devices of the prior art, the gripper members are rigid pieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,161,431, to Francis issued Dec. 15, 1964, discloses a brick gripping device including inflatable gripper members for stacking or stacking and facing bricks. A similar device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,480,161, to Bason issued Nov. 25, 1969, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 3,589,495, to Pearne et al issued June 29, 1971 (see FIG. 14). U.S. Pat. No. 3,338,815, to Lingl issued June 16, 1978, discloses a brick gripping device utilizing rigid bars. The above cited U.S. Pat. No. 3,589,495 to Pearne in FIG. 2, discloses an inverter device for inverting slugs (as opposed to bricks) utilizing a plate and vacuum produced at the surface of the plate for holding the slugs. In all of the patented devices just described, the bricks, or the slugs, are rotated 180.degree. in order to perform the facing operation.